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The stadium myth..

chinaman

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2003
17,974
12,423
I have no fear. We're so much fitter than any other team. If the bigger space is a problem to us, it'll be an even bigger problem for others.
 

TottenhamMattSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
10,925
16,007
We'll probably never match last season's home form so whatever we do this season people will claim it was down to Wembley.
 

michaelden

Knight of the Fat Fanny
Aug 13, 2004
26,386
21,685
When/ if we make it to the latter stages of the cup comps, will we be forced to play at Cardiff as it's a "neutral" ground?
 

SlunkSoma

Like dogs bright
Oct 5, 2004
3,941
3,490
The reason why we have won less matches at Wembley is mainly because we tend to play better sides there. To play at Wembley usually means that you are in the latter stages of a competition.
Coupled with the fact that we prioritise the league over cups, so there is a drop off in effort/preparation. Look at our performance against Wycombe. A second string team maybe, but it was at 70% effort at most.
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
Plus, to my knowledge the dimensions of the NWHL Stadium will be the same as Wembley. We just have to adapt, move on by stop making Wembley an issue
 

Sandros Shiny Head

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
4,794
8,765
For all the talk of Wembley being a home ground last year, it was only a handful of games over a few months. This time it will be set up more to our needs and will be the proper home ground for every home match and not a temporary stop off before going back to WHL
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
For all the talk of Wembley being a home ground last year, it was only a handful of games over a few months. This time it will be set up more to our needs and will be the proper home ground for every home match and not a temporary stop off before going back to WHL
Exactly!
 

Lighty64

I believe
Aug 24, 2010
10,400
12,476
I can understand why people think it, I do if I'm honest and that's down to our performances last year in Europe, which were abysmal. And yes teams do tend to up their game too as it's Wembley, but I'm really hoping we make it a home from home and produce some great performances.

you do realise we never once played our strongest XI at Wembley last season?

yes with a few injuries we won't be playing it at the start of this season, but nor will Chelsea our 1st ops
 

Bobbins

SC's 14th Sexiest Male 2008
May 5, 2005
21,548
45,031
Well it isn't a "myth" - it's a very simple fact that our results at Wembley have been extremely poor since the new stadium opened.

Up until last season, it was also true that our performances there were generally very poor as well - we weren't losing through bad luck. We were coming up short when it mattered and we were consistently doing that when we played games at Wembley.

Last season we put in some decent performances there which was an improvement, but the facts are that we still couldn't produce the results we needed - not at any stage, against multiple teams of wildly varying quality in three different competitions.

There are nerves around the club when we are at Wembley and you can feel it amongst the fans and see it on the faces and in the performances of the players.

It'll be a "myth" when we've produced a consistent set of results there against a decent number of teams. It'll be a "myth" when we can point to good performances against big teams where we get the results we need.

Until then it's nothing of the sort - it's an inconvenient truth, one which hopefully this season will see us banish to history forever.

This temporary year at Wembley could actually do wonders for the future of the club in terms of our familiarity with the stadium and our ability to play our "normal" game there, and should mean we are far more likely to perform well there in future cup finals etc. This season is a massive opportunity to put to bed one of the few remaining "Spursy" traits the club still carries, which Poch has done so much to destroy in his time.

I'm still not looking forward to the Chelsea game, though, nor the inevitable and predictable press reaction should we lose the game.
 

mark87

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2004
36,032
114,070
you do realise we never once played our strongest XI at Wembley last season?

yes with a few injuries we won't be playing it at the start of this season, but nor will Chelsea our 1st ops

That still doesn't excuse the shite performances we produced and it wasn't like we put out a team full of youth players either, we couldn't even beat Gent ffs.
 

SlunkSoma

Like dogs bright
Oct 5, 2004
3,941
3,490
We'll probably never match last season's home form so whatever we do this season people will claim it was down to Wembley.
It's going to be such a tiresome season in terms of punditry. We'll have Tommo and Tony Cottee making the same point about Wembley right up to the end of the season. Even if our team is ravaged by injuries.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
That still doesn't excuse the shite performances we produced and it wasn't like we put out a team full of youth players either, we couldn't even beat Gent ffs.

Again, Gent is a bad example, we had 10 men and played them off the park, we lost that tie in the first leg.
 

mark87

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2004
36,032
114,070
Again, Gent is a bad example, we had 10 men and played them off the park, we lost that tie in the first leg.

The first leg was 1-0, a score that should have been overturned. We weren't good enough in either game. Plus teams with 10 men can still win games.
 

Doctor Dinkey

Legacy Fan
Jul 6, 2013
3,591
8,687
We tend to play poorly in high pressure/important games away from the Lane. It's not the ground itself, I think, but our inability to raise or maintain our performance for these sort of games.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
The first leg was 1-0, a score that should have been overturned. We weren't good enough in either game. Plus teams with 10 men can still win games.

So you're saying that we should still have churned out an excellent performance despite having a disadvantage even though we played the opposition off the park for the majority of the match...righto :confused:

Which ever way you look at it, it's a crap example.
 

mark87

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2004
36,032
114,070
So you're saying that we should still have churned out an excellent performance despite having a disadvantage even though we played the opposition off the park for the majority of the match...righto :confused:

Which ever way you look at it, it's a crap example.

It was 1-0 not 10-0. I appreciate it was a disadvantage but we still should have beaten them, and although we had the majority of possession we only had 3 shots on target, that is what i am getting at, we were not good enough when we should have been, they're a midtable Belgium club for Christ's sake.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
It was 1-0 not 10-0. I appreciate it was a disadvantage but we still should have beaten them, and although we had the majority of possession we only had 3 shots on target, that is what i am getting at, we were not good enough when we should have been, they're a midtable Belgium club for Christ's sake.

So you can hardly put it down to a 'shite performance' as you put it, no-one's arguing that we weren't good enough but we weren't shite. If you're shite you don't dominate possession (65%-35%) and pepper the opposition's goal with 25 shots despite only being 3 on target. All I'm saying is that the reason we lost has nothing to do with the Wembley factor and it points more to the fact that we had a man less for the majority of the match.
 

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
31,261
21,760
We pissed all over a pretty decent Juve Team there! :D
 

mark87

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2004
36,032
114,070
So you can hardly put it down to a 'shite performance' as you put it, no-one's arguing that we weren't good enough but we weren't shite. If you're shite you don't dominate possession (65%-35%) and pepper the opposition's goal with 25 shots despite only being 3 on target. All I'm saying is that the reason we lost has nothing to do with the Wembley factor and it points more to the fact that we had a man less for the majority of the match.

In an attacking sense it was shite due to the 3 shots on target and the defending wasn't up to our usual standard either. Plus Gent admitted they upped their game because of where it was at too.
Anyway, we'll agree to disagree on this one.
 
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